President Bashar al-Assad and his family lost control of Syria and fled to Russia in the face of an astonishingly swift rebel offensive. Early Monday morning, Damascus heard strikes.
In Damascus, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, the leader of the primary rebel group, referred to the removal of Assad as a “victory for the entire Islamic nation” in his initial public statements. Guided by Jolani’s HTS group, an al Qaeda affiliate, the rebels have declared that they will safeguard minorities.
The US military announced that it had struck over 75 ISIS targets in Syria to prevent the terrorist group from exploiting the situation in the country, as US President Joe Biden celebrated the fall of the Assad regime.
Israel has directed its military to establish a security zone in Syria that extends beyond the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. This move is indicative of the potential threat that the Jewish state faces from unknown rulers in Damascus in the wake of the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship.
On Monday, Defense Minister Israel Katz’s office issued a statement that verified Israel’s acquisition of the Syrian side of the strategic high point of Mt. Hermon. Israel formally annexed the Golan Heights in 1981 after capturing it from Syria during the Six-Day War in 1967.
